Reviews by the Reference Department of the Bristol Public Library, Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Bad Feminist, Bad Paper, Rock 'n' Roll and More in Nevermore

Summary by Meygan

Nevermore began with the discussion of Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. This is a collection
of essays in which Gay hones in on feminism using pop culture references such
as Sweet Valley High and Orange is the New Black, politics, and
her own critical opinions. Bad Feminist is
a New York Times bestselling book. As a female black gay author, Gay also
writes about race, friendship, and body image. The Nevermore reader likes this
book but says it is hard to categorize. Still, it was a highly recommended
book.

The next book discussed was The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Ten Songs by Greil Marcus. Nevermore
readers discussed the songs that were mentioned in the book, stating whether or
not they had heard the songs. One reader said she had only heard of three of
the songs; another said she had heard only one. Greil Marcus is an author,
music journalist, and cultural critic. This is not his first book about rock
and roll music.

Gone
Girl
by Gillian Flynn was a popular book in Nevermore. The reviewer said she
couldn’t put the book down and she just had to make sure that she finished the
book before she left her house that afternoon. Gone Girl is about a husband whose wife disappears. After he
becomes the prime suspect, he and his sister work together to find his missing
wife. This book has been described by a Nevermore reader as being a
page-turning thriller!

“Holy mackerel!” was the Nevermore book reviewer’s
response to Jake Halpern’s Bad Paper:
Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld. In this book, former bank
executive Aaron Siegal and former robber Brandon Wilson work in cahoots with
one another to purchase uncollected debts for pennies on the millions. Our
reader said this reminds him of the movie “Wolf of Wall Street,” which is a
movie adaptation from Jordan Belfort’s book The
Wolf of Wall Street. The Nevermore reader said Bad Paper focuses on the underbelly of the debt collectors and is
mind boggling how they make unbelievable amounts of money from this scheme.

The
Mantle of Command by Nigel Hamilton was highly praised
and was described as being a great book. This book deals with Roosevelt during
WWII and the reviewer said you are “with” Roosevelt the whole time. He said the
author did a good job of presenting all of the information, especially about
Pearl Harbor. He also said this is better than any other book he has seen about
Roosevelt and WWII. However, the book only covers until halfway through the
WWII. The Nevermore reader suspects there will be a volume 2 issued.

A few weeks ago, a Nevermore reader finished Capital in the Twenty-First Century by
Thomas Piketty. Another Nevermore reader started reading the book because he
found it intriguing. He did say to skip over the introduction though because it
will about put a reader to sleep! The same Nevermore reader also read Doctored by Sandeep Jauhar, which was
previously discussed in Nevermore. He enjoyed the book even though the content
is dark.

The last book discussed was Love Saves the Day by Gwen Cooper, the author of Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or
How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat. The Nevermore
reader stated that she likes the book so far, despite the cheesy title.
However, this is the case where a reader should not judge a book by its title.
This book is not a love story between a man and a woman. This is a story from
the point-of-view of Prudence, a cat, who is being taken to her owner’s
daughter’s house to live. She doesn’t understand what happened to Sarah, her
owner, but she clings on to the hope that Sarah will be back to get her soon.

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